#106 - Should I Go to Church? (Part 3) {Reflections}

What if church wasn’t a product but a countercurrent—something that pulls us out of the cultural river and teaches us to live differently? We open up a candid look at why a healthy church community still matters: not as a perfect institution, but as a living alternative to polarization, loneliness, and consumer thinking. Drawing from Israel’s origin story—justice for the vulnerable, honest measures in business, a sexual ethic that dignifies bodies—we trace how an ancient calling can shape modern communities to bless their neighbors, not mirror the marketplace.

Across the conversation, we call out the drift toward “consumer religion,” where music and preaching are rated like apps, and move instead toward participation: serving, giving, and shared worship that forms character. We contrast the internet’s shallow notes—hot takes, instant outrage, and algorithmic speed—with the base notes of the Christian tradition: covenant, mercy, repentance, hope. Those deeper tones invite us to sit with better questions—Who am I? Whose am I? What really matters?—and to practice habits that resist hurry, image-making, and self-promotion.

This is a vision for a multi-generational, cross-class, politically diverse people who gather for something bigger than themselves and then carry that presence into ordinary life—boardrooms and breakrooms, kitchens and city councils. Honest work, hospitality to strangers, care for the poor, peacemaking across divides: these aren’t extras; they are the point. If you’ve been searching for a place that exchanges transaction for trust and speed for substance, consider this your invitation to explore a community defined by grace, truth, and shared life.

If the message resonates, share this episode with a friend, subscribe for future reflections, and leave a review to help others find the show. And if you’re local, join us at Central in Elk River—8:30 for our liturgical gathering or 10:00 for our modern gathering—or visit clcelkriver.org.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:15):
What is up everybody?
Hey, Brian here, and welcome toour Reflections Podcast.
I think this is episode 105,106.
106.
And this is the third part in apart three episode or part three
series that uh I'm I guess I'mcalling it like why why go to
church?
And look, there's plenty ofreasons why you should why you
may not want to go to church oreven why you shouldn't go to
church, but I want to give youthree why I think you should go

(00:37):
to church and attending worshipand being a part of a church
community is good for you andgood for your soul and your
spirit and good for your lifeand your family and your
neighborhood and these kinds ofthings.
No, it's not perfect.
I get that.
Nothing is perfect, of course.
And in this remedial time, thereis this you know, this tension
we live in of like this now andnot yet.
And so church and churchexperiences are kind of like

(00:59):
that.
And uh there's some that arebetter than others, but but I
think the overall experience, ifyou find a good one, a good fit,
it can be incredibly helpful andbeneficial and good for you in
many, many ways.
And here's reason number three.
If you didn't get one and two,go back and listen to them.
Um, but uh reason number threeis that church is supposed to
be, now they're not all likethis, so be be careful and be

(01:20):
forewarned, but church issupposed to be and can be this
beautiful counter-culturalcommunity, or as one uh writer
calls it, an alternativeimagination.
I love it because you and I areshaped by our culture and our
community that kind of is likethis river that that just is
flowing a thousand miles anhour, and we often will just
jump in it and we're shaped byit, and uh sometimes it's just

(01:43):
not great and it's not good, andwe end up downstream a hundred
miles away from where we want tobe, and uh, we don't even notice
all the time.
So, church can be thisincredible countercultural
community and movement, thisalternative imagination.
And uh, this is the I think thisis one of the biggest ideas of
what church is supposed to beand supposed to do.
So think back to Israel, thestory of Israel in the in the

(02:04):
Hebrew Bible in the OldTestament, when God partners
with Abraham and Sarah as a wayof kind of restoring the world,
he's like, I'm gonna build youinto this beautiful community.
Uh, you'll have so many kids,they'll outnumber the stars in
the sky.
You can read this story in thebook of Genesis and in the
Hebrew Bible and the OldTestament and uh Genesis 12 and
going forward.
And then they become this nationcalled Israel, and God gives

(02:26):
them these ways of living andbeing in the world uh through
laws and other kinds of thingsthat shapes them to be this kind
of people that in and ofthemselves they were to be a
counter-cultural community, acountercultural movement, uh, an
alternative imagination, if youwill, that was to be different
than all of their neighborsaround them.
So when God gives them laws andlike, here's how you'll treat

(02:46):
people, here's how you'll act,here's how you'll engage with
me, it was wildly different thanall the places around them.
So, for example, in Israel,justice for the vulnerable is
extremely important.
So there were laws that tookcare of the widows and the
orphans and the poor and theforeigners.
And the the cultures and nationsaround them were mostly
exploitative cultures.
They didn't care for or valuethe vulnerable, but Israel was

(03:08):
supposed to.
They also had to have honestbusiness practices.
So there were laws against falseweights and measures because
they would they would exchangeyou know um money and they would
trade and uh through thesemeasures or scales, and they
would oftentimes people woulduse fake weights, and um, and
there was all kinds ofexploitative economic practices
around them, and and Israel isnot supposed to be that way.

(03:29):
So if you read Leviticus andAmos, they were to be honest in
their practices.
Also, they had like a uniquesexual ethic.
So there were prohibitionsagainst cultic prostitution,
which was normal in that day.
So you had prostitution going onin like in temples and in cultic
practices.
There was also rampant incestand other things that were
common in these fertilityreligions, even like bizarre

(03:49):
sexual behaviors with animals.
It was just weird.
And Israel was supposed to bedifferent.
And also there were other thingsas well, but uh those were just
to name a few.
Um, and the the biggest thingwas that Israel was supposed to
be a blessing to all of thepeople around them, to the whole
world, in fact.
They were to be the light of theworld, the light to the nations.
And so they were to be thiscounter-cultural movement to

(04:11):
sort of show what it looks liketo live in communion with God,
the one true God, Yahweh, and tobe a people who shared and took
care of each other and the poorand the vulnerable and and uh
and shared land and resources.
They were to be acounter-cultural movement in a
world going the oppositedirection.
And so I think that we as thechurch, the Christian church,
ought to embody that same kindof calling, if I can borrow

(04:34):
that, and be this uh acounter-movement in the culture
today.
So, in a society today that'smarked by a number of things,
including polarization andtribalism, and even like
loneliness and disconnection ortransactional relationships or
consumerism, these kinds ofthings, the church is one of the
last places and spaces wherepeople can gather uh and and

(04:56):
sort of ingest or inherit or seean alternative worldview and way
of being in the world.
It's a place where people of allages and different income levels
and uh different backgrounds andvoting styles, ideally, even
different careers and bluecollar, white collar, and where
these different people anddisparate kinds of callings and
places that uh and people theygather for something bigger than

(05:19):
themselves.
And ideally, it's not to be aplace of consumerism.
It's not to be a place where youcome and consume.
Now, listen, it's become this,okay?
You have churches that uh verymuch operate as though they are,
you know, um trying to marketand recruit more consumers, and
so they talk about product andthese kinds of things.
It's hard to not fall into thatuh that sort of philosophy, but

(05:40):
ideally, it's not where you cometo consume anything.
It's to give, to give your lifeaway.
Now, part of it's on us as well,the attenders.
Like we we come with thisconsumer mindset, and so we tell
people, well, the music wasn'tgood or the preaching wasn't
good, or I'm gonna go across thestreet to that place.
They offer a better product thanyou do.
It's like, okay, well, we're allkind of at fault in this way,
but ideally, it's not to be aplace of consumer, you know, of

(06:02):
more consumerism andtransaction.
It's supposed to be a placewhere we as a people can come
and worship and give ourselvesaway and and share and these
kinds of things.
Religion, it's valuable, I wouldargue, not because it gives all
the answers.
Now, there are some that itgives, and I think it's
wonderful, but but more sowhat's deeper is religion and
Christianity gives us ideallyspace to explore good questions.

(06:23):
And then it also offers us adifferent lens to see the world.
This is where it's really uh itsbest.
Not when it just gives outanswers.
That's not what we're doing, Ithink, ideally.
It's to be a place that offers adifferent lens through which to
see the world.
So the church can help usimagine life, not as this
endless consumerism or hamsterwheel or self-promotion or

(06:45):
self-branding, but a place ofgrace and hope and connection
and depth and profundity.
And in a culture where we'rebombarded with advertising and
algorithms and telling us whatwe want and what to do and uh,
you know, how to look and how tobe, the church can ask us deeper
and better questions, like whoare you?
Who are you really and whose areyou and what really matters, you

(07:06):
know?
I love it like this that youknow the world in our culture is
filled with what uh one writercalled, he calls them shallow
notes.
You know, you go into Twitterand it's quick snippet, quick
opinions, immediate opinions,you know.
We just had recently the theshooting and and uh the killing
of Charlie Kirk, and immediatelyeverybody online, I mean, I and
I'm I'm not being hyperbolic,almost everybody had an opinion

(07:28):
right away and posted it onFacebook or Instagram or
whatever, had a podcast, andit's like, man, why do we all
and now look that's obviously ahot button topic, but why do we
all have to have an opinionwithout thinking much about it?
Like all of a couple of minuteshave gone by and we want to post
about it, our opinion, and andwe're so, you know, we're so hot
about it.
And it's like, man, these arejust shallow notes, just like
quick microwave ideas, opinions,thoughts.

(07:50):
And rarely do we think deepabout things any longer or let
things marinate for a couple ofdays or weeks or even years.
We're so quick with all these,you know, we have all these
tools at our disposal that canmake things quick, you know,
Amazon Prime, and which I love,but Amazon Prime and microwaves
and instant, you know, promotionof ideas online.
It's it can happen right away.

(08:11):
And the the church, though, canoffer this deeper anchor to
ancient texts that have beenaround for thousands of years
and ancient ideas and ancientwisdom and things uh like
practices that are likereflecting and slowing down and
praying and giving and sharingthat are deep, what he calls not
shallow notes, these are basenotes.
And the world, I think, ishungry and thirsty for base

(08:33):
notes because we live in aculture that is just, you know,
like shallow notes run amuck.
And we need deeper wisdom andthese ancient texts that of
course the Bible reads, likeit's an ancient old book.
It is, but it it speaks of theseincredibly profound truths that
are still relevant today.
How do we live with each otherand how do we handle violence

(08:54):
and injustice?
And and uh is there a God thatis for us and loves us, and and
can we receive grace andforgiveness and these kinds of
things?
So the church at its best canoffer this counter-cultural
place and community and analternative imagination for how
to be in the world that can sortof get us out of this river that
runs a thousand miles an hourdownhill and help us to imagine

(09:15):
life and our place in it in adifferent way, a different lens
through which to see all of it.
And that, my friends, is worthgoing and checking out.
So, check it out.
All right, love you guys, peace.
Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'dlove to have you share it with
some friends.
And don't forget, you are alwayswelcome to join us in person at
Central in Elk River at 8:30,which is our liturgical

(09:36):
gathering, or at 10 o'clock, ourmodern gathering.
Or you can check us out onlineat clcelkriver.org.
Peace.